Industry map | Investing, Raising Capital, Sales Training, and Recruiting with Social Media

Social Software Landscape

We view social software companies as falling into five large buckets. We have listed a few representative companies in each bucket below. Please note that the lines between categories are fuzzy. Many of these companies could fit comfortably into a different box than the one in which we placed them.

	Primary Customers
	The Public	Enterprise
General Purpose	Realtime communications– chat, IM, VoIP, web conferencing, SMS. AOL IM, eBuddy, ICQ, IRC, Meebo, MSN Messenger, Skype, Twitter, Yahoo! Messenger Virtual communities / social network services. Alumni.net, AOL, Classmates, Craigslist, ezboard, FriendsReunited, Grouply, MSN Groups, MSN Spaces, Ning, Yahoo! Groups Identity management. FreshAddress, Return Path, Ziggs Identity protection. Cardcops, Debix, LifeLock, ReputationDefender, TrustedID Blog readers. Google Reader Face-to-face meeting facilitation sites. Evite, Meetup Blog software. Blogger, Six Apart, Radio Userland, Wordpress Tagging/Bookmarking. delicious	Virtual community builders. Affinity Engines, Groupee, iModules Software, Invision Power Services, Lithium, SelectMinds, vBulletin, Web Crossing Virtual community builders focused on conferences. IntroNetworks, Pathable Biography analysis. D&B, Hoovers, Implu, InsideView, Jigsaw, InfoUSA, OneSource, iProfile, Spoke, ZillionResumes, ZoomInfo Org Chart analysis. CogMap, Forbes Org Chart, TheOfficialBoard Public social network mapping. Boardex, Capital IQ, LinkSV, Westlaw Peoplemap Contact data management/CRM. Aptium, Best Software (Act), Frontrange (Goldmine), Salesforce.com, SugarCRM Blog analysis/publishing tools. FeedBlitz, FeedBurner, Pheedo
Primarily Business Use	Virtual communities / social network services. LinkedIn, Xing Contact data synchronization. Plaxo, Spoke Social network grooming. Socialminder	Relationship capital management (enterprise-focused). BranchIt, Contact Network, Interface Software, Jigsaw, Leverage Software, Spoke SoftwareWorkflow. Basecamp, Groove, IBM Lotus Notes, iCohere, SilkRoad Online Marketing Intelligence. BuzzLogic, Nielsen Buzzmetrics, TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony, Brandimensions Blogs. SixApart, Traction Software Wikis. Atlassian, Google Sites, SocialText Social network analysis/knowledge management. Autonomy Competitive analysis. SpyFu Job referral networks. Accolo, H3.com Expert network research. Gerson Lehrman Group, Evalueserve Circle of Experts, Coleman Research Group, Guidepoint Global Sales training. Miller Heiman Sales support. Vorsight, Evalueserve, SalesSupport360
Primarily Personal Use	Blog publishing networks. b5 Media, Gawker Media, Shiny Media, Weblogs, Inc.Virtual communities / social network services. aSmallWorld, Bebo, Facebook, Friendster, hi5, Multiply, Myspace, Orkut, Mobile social software. Plazes, WaveMarket Photo-sharing sites. Flickr, Fotolog.net, WebShots Dating sites. eHarmony, lavalife, Match.com, PerfectMatch, Spark Networks, TRUE, Yahoo! Personals

This table is very loosely based on earlier taxonomies by Geoff Hyatt, CEO, Contact Network Corp, and Stowe Boyd.

Following are some buyer’s guide for families of software referenced above:
Lead management software
Social networking software
Recruiting software
Online CRM software / Financial CRM software
Wiki software
Sales force automation software

The Virtual Handshake

Opening Doors and Closing Deals Online

Social Software Landscape